Cowes is the main town of the popular holiday destination of Phillip Island, home to one of the best sites for viewing the internationally known fairy penguins. It is only 120 km (or under 1.5 hours) south of Melbourne on the Bass Highway.
Phillip Island has a mixed community with tourism, fishing and farming. It attracts about 3.5 million visitors a year and is the single most popular travel destination in Australia.
Cowes has a population of 3060. The Island has a permanent population of 5700, with an extra 1500 at San Remo, but in the summer, during the holiday period, this number can swell significantly. 17 % of the population are over the age of 65 that is above the state average of 12%. Phillip Island’s population has been growing significantly.
Phillip Island joins South Gippsland via a 640 m long bridge at San Remo, providing an idea of how close the island is to the mainland.
The Rock formations at the southern tip of the island such as the Nobbies have been the ideal place for gathering Australian Fur Seals, as many as 9,000 can be viewed at one time. Fur seals are among the largest seals in the world.
There are bays and beaches all over the island and many are ideal places for swimming, surfing, sailing or other water sports.
Activities that have made the island popular are the penguin parade. Each night at dusk the fairy penguins make their way on to the shore to their burrows for the night. In mid-summer thousands can be seen from the specially made viewing boardwalks. The boardwalks have been constructed to protect the sand dunes necessary for the building of penguin’s burrows.
Koala viewing is popular on the island and as they are protected animals can be seen at the Koala Conservation Centre where you can take a woodland walk and view them in their natural habitat.
